Indian teen allegedly killed over letter

MUMBAI, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- A 15-year-old boy in India has died after being beaten in public and thrown under a train for writing a love letter to a girl, authorities allege.

Superintendant Rajesh Kumar said Manish Kumar, a member of India's so-called untouchable Dalit community, was attacked on his way to school and beaten in front of his mother before being thrown in front of a train, The Times of London reported Thursday.

"The accused killed the boy for writing a love letter to a girl of the same village. There was a scuffle, and he was pushed in front of a train," Kumar said of the incident in the Kaimur district of Bihar state.

Human rights lawyer Uday Kumar told The Times that the conflict over the boy's letter to a girl in a higher social class is nothing new in India.

"Caste-based atrocities are common here, rapes, murders, beatings," the Dalit Association for Social and Human Rights Awareness executive director told the newspaper.

"Crimes are committed by the dominant, or upper, castes, and by the police who refuse to act."

The incident resulted in one teen being arrested and five others detained.